Woman dares to make men’s washrooms waterless & odourless

‘Udaipur’s TOCIC ranks first for innovations’

Udaipur : Many found her ideas stinky, some ridiculed it. But this innovator dared to pursue her dream and achieved it.Today her invention ‘Eco-TrapIn’ under which she created a retrofit green technology of making conventional urinals waterless and odourless is gaining wide popularity. Neha Bagoria’s innovation is one of the models which was promoted and financially assisted under the PRISM project by TePP Outreach cum Cluster Innovation Centre (TOCIC), College of Technology and Agricultural Engineering in Udaipur.

The centre has been, recently, by the Ministry of Science and Technology, ranked number one in the country among such 13 centres running in several IITs and NITs. Neha had started her career in software with a Master’s degree in computer science and worked for 4 years. But she finally realized, the career she was in is just for churning money. She wanted to contribute to the society directly and work in a high social impact area. ” Belonging from Rajasthan, where water scarcity is a common issue, I had always carried this concern for water conservation, so I quit my job in 2010 and started doing research in waterless technology in sanitation space. I found that waterless urinal is an unexplored area with huge potential for water conservation and restroom urinals can be made hygienic” said the confident innovator.

Waterless Loos- ” The technology developed by Neha is best suited and fitted for water scarce areas. It is fitted below the urinal bowl and has an antibacterial inlet/outlet and a float.When urine passes through the outlet, the float seals it once the urine is drained out, not allowing the water and urine to come in contact.Because of this the flush is rarely needed to be used” TOCIC’s Udaipur co-rdinator Dr SM Mathur told Udaipur Kiran. Mathur adds that the centre which is functional since 2008, has promoted over 40 individual innovators to develop green technologies in various fields and for commercialization of the techniques as startups.

Advantages- The technology has three advantages, first that one can now avoid touching the germ-infested lever of the flush. Second, it saves 1,67,900 litres of potable water per urinal annually. And lastly, because the urine and water do not come in contact, the foul odour is curbed, no scale is formed, and drain pipe blockages are avoided. The product is also recyclable and costs roughly Rs 8 per day but looking at the bigger picture it saves 90% in bills like water charges, plumbing, cleaning agents, electricity, and many others. While such products are available in many other countries, such a product in India has been innovated for the first time. The clients of EcoTrapIn currently are in urban and corporates sectors like banks, construction companies, builders as well as in some government offices all over India.